In the classroom this week we watched a short film from local organization The Cultural Conservancy called Seeds of Our Ancestors: Native Youth Awakening to Foodways. The 4th and 5th grade chefs identified many ingredients native to the Americas that we’ve worked with in Edible Social Studies in the film such as acorns, berries, peppers, sunflowers, potatoes, tomatoes, honey, manoomin, and the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash).
In the kitchen classroom we made a chia porridge with walnut milk and a huckleberry sauce and played the Ohlone game of staves. Our toppings included bee pollen, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, mesquite powder, and edible pineapple sage and sunflowers from our kitchen garden. We enjoyed our dessert with an iced tea made from the yerba buena growing in our kitchen garden and stinging nettles.
We closed the unit with a circle where each chef shared their favorite recipe of the year and an appreciation with the group. It’s been a wonderful journey, graduating fifth graders! See you next year, fourth graders!
